was a

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

magazine by

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

, which debuted March 1958 and ended in April 1969. ''Shōnen Book'' was originally a spin-off of Shueisha's . ''Shōnen Book'' is famously known in Japan for being the predecessor to the company's famous ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. The chapters of the series that run ...

'' magazine. The ''Shōnen Book''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

manga volumes are published under the manga imprint. ''Shōnen Book'' was a part of Shueisha's former leading magazine line, ''Book'', now ''Jump''. ''Shōnen Book'' was created in 1958 as a male version of the short lived ''Shōjo Book''. ''Omoshiro Book'' became an offshoot of the magazine, and eventually faded away in the middle of the ''Shōnen Book'' timeline. ''Shōnen Book'' also served as a root to many other magazines published by Shueisha.

History

Shueisha was just getting into the business of making manga magazines, creating the magazine ''Omoshiro Book'' in 1949 and the Shōjo magazine ''Shōjo Book'' in 1951. The success of ''Shōjo Book'', led to the publication of their widely successful, '' Ribon''. Shueisha was planning to make a Shōnen version of their ''Shōjo Book'' magazine, and they created ''Shōnen Book''. ''Shōnen Book'' was created as a sister anthology to their already successful ''Omoshiro Book'', on the front cover of the first ''Shōnen Book'' it announced that ''Omoshiro Book'' would continue as a special issue of ''Shōnen Book''. ''Omoshiro Book'' had an

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu''; – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. Born in Osaka Prefecture, his prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such ...

manga called ''

Lion Books is a 1950s Japanese manga series by Osamu Tezuka. It was published by Shueisha in the '' Omoshiro Book'' as a supplement. The same company published ''Lion Books II'' in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' in the 1970s, which would commonly be referr ...

''. ''Shōnen Book'', historically had some of the most famous

manga artists A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist bef ...

of all time, such as

Tatsuo Yoshida was a Japanese cartoonist, writer, manga artist and anime pioneer who founded the anime studio Tatsunoko Productions. Biography Born in 1932, Yoshida grew up in the hardship of war-torn Japan. A self-taught artist, his first job was as worki ...

whose ''Mach GoGoGo'' (''

Speed Racer ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about Auto racing, automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun W ...

'') appeared in the magazine, and which ultimately was rereleased by Fusosha as two deluxe volumes. The magazine also serialized many of

's manga series. In the middle of ''Shōnen Book's'' publication, '' Shōnen Jump'' was created, making ''Shōnen Book'' a special issue. ''Shōnen Jump'' at the time was a semiweekly magazine. When it became a weekly magazine, the title of ''Shōnen Jump'' was changed to ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', and ''Shōnen Book'' was discontinued. The magazine of ''Shōnen Book'' was replaced with a special called ''Bessatsu Shōnen Jump'', which was later changed to the title ''

Monthly Shōnen Jump was a shōnen manga magazine which was published monthly in Japan by Shueisha from 1970 to 2007 under the ''Jump'' line of magazines. It was the sister magazine to ''Weekly Shōnen Jump''. History The ''Monthly Shōnen Jump'' magazine started ...

'' (branched of into its own magazine, discontinued, and was replaced with the current; '' Jump SQ.''), and then finally ''Akamaru Jump'' (the latter of which is now a "Zōkan" (special) issue).

Features

''Shōnen Book'' much like many other manga magazines had many different features such as manga series, articles, etc. ''Shōnen Book'' also had special editions like , which was a

children's A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...

version of the main anthology, aimed at young children. Or , which features all color artwork. An essential feature of ''Shōnen Book'' is that it had many famous manga artists in it. The magazine published series from the God of Manga,

, and also published Tatsuo Yoshida's ''Mach GoGoGo'', which has become a successful title in the late ages of

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Also in ''Shōnen Book'', a manga adaptation of the sequel to the ''

Mighty Jack was a tokusatsu science fiction/espionage/Action genre, action TV series. Created by Japanese effects wizard Eiji Tsuburaya, the show was produced by Tsuburaya Productions and was broadcast on Fuji Television, Fuji TV from April 6, 1968 to June ...

'' TV drama: ''Tatakae! Mighty Jack''. The famous

Harenchi Gakuen is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Go Nagai. The manga was one of the first to be serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', where it ran from 1968 to 1972, with its chapters col ...

also started in ''Shōnen Book'', and later moved to the major ''

''. In addition to the manga series of ''Shōnen Book'', it also featured many

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

series. The light novels are based on the running series in the magazine.

Manga in the last issue of Shōnen Book

This list contains all of the manga in the last issue of ''Shōnen Book''. Three of the series were transferred to the '' Shōnen Jump'' magazine, also put under their new imprint—''Jump Comics''.

Manga series

One-shots

''Shōnen Book'' media in the English language

Only the series ''

Mach GoGoGo ''Speed Racer'', also known as , is a Japanese media franchise about automobile racing. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was originally serialized in print in Shueisha's 1966 ''Shōnen Book''. It was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics a ...

'' has been released in English. More importantly, the

was one of the first brought to the United States of America, as well as the manga. The manga was first published by

NOW Comics NOW Comics was a comic book publisher founded in late 1985 by Tony C. Caputo as a sole-proprietorship. During the four years after its founding, NOW grew from a one-man operation to operating in 12 countries, and published almost 1,000 comic book ...

, selecting chapters from the series under the title of the English anime. ''Mach GoGoGo'' was later released in complete volumes by

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

Wildstorm Productions Wildstorm Productions, (stylized as WildStorm), is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee under the name "Aegis Entertainment" and expanded in subsequent years by other creators, Wildst ...

under the title ''Speed Racer: the Original Manga'', the cover art was done by Robert DeJesus. Currently the series is published by

Digital Manga Publishing Digital Manga is a California-based publishing company that licenses and releases Japanese manga, anime, and related merchandise in the English language. Digital Manga also owns and operates eManga, a digital publishing site for manga and l ...

under the title ''Speed Racer: Mach Go Go Go''. Although "''Speed Racer''" has found success in the States, some other series have also appeared in the United States under other media besides manga or anime. An example of this would be ''

Obake no Q-tarō is a Japanese manga series by Fujiko Fujio and later Fujiko F. FujioThe series was written under "Fujiko Fujio" initially. When Fujiko F. Fujio and Fujiko A. Fujio decided to separate, Fujiko F. Fujio took over this series. about the ...

'' by

Fujiko Fujio was a manga writing duo formed by Japanese manga artists and . They formed their partnership in 1951, and used the Fujiko Fujio name from 1954 until dissolution of the partnership in 1987, upon Fujimoto's illness. The pair was best known ...

, the ''Shōnen Book'' series was never published in English, although a video game based on the series was published in the United States. This game was called '' Obake no Q-tarō: WanWan Panic'' retitled ''Chubby Cherub'', and was heavily altered. The game was originally made for fans of the series, which Americans would have no knowledge of. Q-tarō, the Ghost was replaced with a

cherub A cherub (; plural cherubim; he, כְּרוּב ''kərūḇ'', pl. ''kərūḇīm'', likely borrowed from a derived form of akk, 𒅗𒊏𒁍 ''karabu'' "to bless" such as ''karibu'', "one who blesses", a name for the lamassu) is one of the u ...

. The series has been in many other magazines besides ''Shōnen Book'', such as ''

CoroCoro Comic is a Japanese monthly manga magazine published by Shogakukan, established on May 15, 1977. Its main target is elementary school-aged boys, younger than the readers of shōnen manga. Several of its properties, like ''Doraemon'' and the '' Poké ...

'', ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, ...

'', and ''

Bessatsu Shōnen Sunday This is a list of manga magazines or published in Japan. The majority of manga magazines are categorized into one of five demographics, which correspond to the age and gender of their readership: * '' Kodomo'' – aimed at young children. * '' ...

'', making the game media of all four of the anthologies. Even currently ''Shōnen Book'' appeared in United States. In the ''

Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan by its original name , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 ''tankōbon'' vo ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

video game '' Astro Boy: Omega Factor'', the main character of the ''

Big X is a science fiction manga series and an anime series by Osamu Tezuka, based on actual experiments conducted by the Nazis to create secret weapons toward the end of World War II. The anime, which was Tokyo Movie Shinsha's first work, is c ...

'' series made a cameo. ''Astro Boy: Omega Factor'' was released in States on August 17, 2004. As for the manga based on television series, not the manga, but the ''

'' TV series had episodes one through six merged into a dubbed feature-length film (much like ''

Giant Robo is a Japanese manga series by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. The manga, which was first published in 1967, spawned a live-action ''tokusatsu'' television series of the same name, as well as a series of original video animations called '' Giant Robo: ...

''). This was a common act of filmmaking at the time. The series gained more exposure after its appearance on

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

, which in the 1980s aired on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

. Also the manga ''Captain Scarlet'' was an adaptation of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

TV show: ''

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons ''Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons'', often shortened to ''Captain Scarlet'', is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company Century 21 Productions for distributor I ...

'', which was in English to begin with.

References

External links

Official Shueisha history page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shonen Book 1958 establishments in Japan 1969 disestablishments in Japan Defunct magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1958 Magazines disestablished in 1969 Magazines published in Tokyo Shōnen manga Shueisha magazines Weekly manga magazines published in Japan